Top Republican Wants GOP To Stop Blocking Budget Negotiations

House Appropriations Chairman Hal Rogers (R-KY) told a handful of reporters Tuesday he supports House-Senate conference negotiations over a comprehensive budget resolution, which Republican leaders have blocked since April.

"They should have done that long ago," he said in response to a question from TPM, before walking into a closed-door GOP meeting to discuss the government shutdown strategy.

Senate Democrats have formally requested budget talks 18 times since the two chambers passed differing budgets early this spring, but Republicans have blocked it each time. Would he like to see GOP leaders support bicameral budget talks?

"Yes, I would," Rogers said.

Republican leaders are calling for House-Senate negotiations on a short-term funding resolution but still oppose talks for a larger budget that would resolve Congress' differences. They say they want to achieve a general consensus before initiating budget talks. Some GOP lawmakers have said they want to use the debt limit as a cudgel to force Democrats to accept fiscal reforms.